Thursday, January 24, 2013

Let's Get This Party Started

A bit of housekeeping re: my last post. I did not mean to suggest that bloggers shouldn't write books. And to each of you who commented, let me say specifically: if you feel the urge to write a book, please try. Give it serious attention and know that I'm behind you & think you can do it. I'm not one of those writers who believes one must be born with a magical blend of craft & calling to see one's esteemed prose published. My point was that writing a book takes more effort (writing, editing, re-writing, taking out huge chunks of text that don't quite work, waking up at 2am once you finally know what will work to fill that space....) than blogging does. It involves more discarding of ideas after you try them and realize you only have 200 words to say on a certain matter, rather than 2000. And most good chapters take more than a half hour to wrestle onto the page. That's not a bad thing; it's just the process.

So if you feel like you might have a book in you, trust that feeling--don't give up. Work at it, and keep working. If your experience is anything like mine, you'll discover things you didn't even know you believed until you wrote it on the page. It's an amazing thing to be part of.

And, apropos of nothing, I'll share this:

Princess Peach's new musical obsession is Mandisa's "Good Morning." We listen to to it in the morning on the way to school...then again later, on the way home...on Saturdays running errands...and Sundays on the way to church. These days, it's pretty much always a Good Morning in the Peachmobile.

One line that makes me giggle every time is when Mandisa sings, "Jumped out of bed...Gotta get this party going!" Because that's precisely what I'm thinking each day when I untangle myself from the pile of sheets and stumble downstairs for coffee: Let's get this party started! (except, no...not at all.)

1 comment:

That's encouraging. I would love to read more of your thoughts on Life & Hope, out of all the things mentioned on your page. And err... there is no happily ever after, its more like frantically ever after :p